Challenges in ocean modelling and data assimilation for CMEMS

The ambition of CMEMS is to be the primary source of information for monitoring and prediction of the physical and bio-geochemical properties of the marine environment, both in the global deep ocean and in European coastal waters. This requires that the teams developing CMEMS identify and address several key scientific and technical challenges. Some challenges relate to the ocean model used to generate CMEMS products. For example to ensure that it simulates the most important aspects of the flow as faithfully as other ocean models and that it is able to perform efficiently on relevant High Performance Computer (HPC) systems. Some challenges relate to the data assimilation. For example to ensure that the ocean re-analyses are not compromised by problems caused by biases in the ocean model and to develop more effective collaboration within the team of data assimilation developers. Other challenges relate to biogeochemistry (BGC). For example to develop monitoring systems sufficient to support the validation and development of the BGC models, and suitable systems for joint assimilation of physical and BGC measurements. The presentation will focus on illustrating and discussing these challenges.